I'm Not Scared

One relentless summer, six children explore the scorched wheatfields that surround their tiny community in the Italian countryside, while the adults shelter indoors. But when the gang chances on a tumbledown farmhouse, nine-year-old Michele Amitrano makes a discovery so momentous he dare not tell anyone about it.

I’m Not Scared is a devastatingly authentic portrayal of childhood, and Michele must summon all of his imaginative resources to deal with his terrible secret. This is an enthralling and terrifying story about friendship and betrayal, guilt and innocence, which drives us inexorably to its tragic climax.

Praise for I'm Not Scared:

‘Niccoló Ammaniti is the best novelist of his generation.’

Il Giornale

‘Ammaniti, one of the most admired figures on the Italian fiction scene…uses short sentences like the cracks of a whip and sharp paragraphs to make our hearts race and carry us to the edge of the abyss.’

ABC, Spain

‘Ammaniti is a born story-teller.’

L'Unita

‘Readers will find this accomplished work hard to put down and even harder to forget.’

Publishers Weekly

‘A tense, breathless book, written with self-confidence and vitality.’

La Stampa

‘Readable in one breath…moving, impressive, amazing. It reminds you of Italo Calvino, but a Calvino warmed by a humanity that is not afraid to roll around in the mud.’

Panorama

‘Confirms his extraordinary narrative talent, over which he superimposes an atmosphere of horror and marvel.’

Le Monde